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Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 121, 12 May 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

I LOST IN THE SNOAV. ! 'j Mr. A. O. Brooks, deputy coroner > for the Hundred of High Peak, ! Derbyshire, held an inquest at I Aehopton Inn, twelve miles from ! Sheifield, the other day, on the body of "William Walker, aged 1 7, son of Mr. Mark AValker, farmer, of Ridinghouse Park, in the parish of Derwent. i The circumstances of his death are ' very sad. Only three witnesses were j examined — the father, mother, and ! brother of deceased. Their evidence I showed that on February 27, two of Mr. AValker's sons, AVilliam, aged 17, and Frank, aged 13, left home I between ten and eleven o'clock in the ! morning, to look after the sheep on the moors. The lads took with them two collie dogs, Nell and Dot, and they were seen going in the direction of AVinstone Lee Tor. On the way the lads met their father, who said they had better put their coats on, i and they took his advice. Some I three hours later the dogs returned j home alone, and appeared to be very ! restless and peculiar in their manner. I The father and mother then sot out jto find the lads. The dogs wont j along and kept " waffling " (as the I people call it), eager in their desire ito get on. After going a considerable distance, Mrs. AValker noticed a dog's footprints, but noticed no bootI marks in the snow. The dogs espe--1 cially the old one, appeared to settle j ! near a mass of fallen snow, which j | had slid over from from AVinstone ; Lee Tor. The snow had evidently j drifted to the edge of the cliff, and ! subsequently slipped over in a huge I mass, weighing many tons, and the 1 path under the face of the tor was buried Mrs. Walker soon discovered a foot and ankle projecting i from the snow, and raised the alarm. ! recognising that it was the foot of j her youngest son Frank. Her hus- ' band, who was some distance away, came with all possible speed, the mother, meanwhile, working at the snow to save her boy, who was head downwards, and must have been there three or four hours. A fierce wind was blowing at the tinio, and the snow was whirling about in clouds. She in a short tiiuo rescued her son, but the body was stiff and cold, and the face blue and discoloured. The mother used every effort to restore animation. Partially succeeding, she at once asked, " Oh, Frank, where is AVillio ?" and he answered, " He was here last night," evidently being undor the impression that he had been there all night. As the search was being continued, the husband observed the old dog " Nell " again scratching and " wattling," and he went up to the animal who barked impatiently. On reaching the place indicated by the dog lie noticed the feet of the other son, Willie, projecting through the face of the solid mass of snow, which was at that spot several feet deep. This ' body was also buried deeply, the snow being firmly wedged, and the body "jammed" in so closely that it could not be extricated until a shovel - was obtained nnd the snow cut. It was found that the body was face downwards in a slanting position, over four feet of snow being on the head. After hard work the body was got out. It was evident that life had been extinct for a consider- i able time. From the statement of j Frank Walker who was with his ,